MURMANSK, February 20. /TASS/. In 2026, the Pasvik Nature Reserve in the Murmansk Region in cooperation with scientists will create "open-air laboratories" to study soil revegetation and wildlife ecosystems' recovery in areas that were exposed to industrial impacts for a long time, the nature reserve's Director Natalia Polikarpova told TASS.
"This year, we are beginning a new large-scale project to study natural restoration of terrestrial ecosystems in the area between Nikel and Zapolyarnoye in the Pechenga District of the Murmansk Region," she said. "In fact, it will be a scientific experiment and an open-air laboratory, where we will apply various recovery technologies and conduct observations."
Several test grounds will be arranged in the wild, where the reserve's staff and scientists from the Russian Geological Exploration University and members of the Russian Academy of Sciences will monitor the impact of various factors on restoration of terrestrial ecosystems, she added.
"There will work specialists in restoration: soil scientists, geo-botanists, geographers, bio-chemists, microbiologists. We will test at different sites different methods of influencing the soil and the soil cover using various components. We will add various soil mixtures, minerals, grass mixtures and various local plant species, and more; we will consider various environmental factors, will study effects of moisture, geographical features, how revegetation will differ on slopes, on tops of hills, as well as how the long-range exposure - northern, southern, western, eastern - will contribute to this," the nature reserve's director said.
Fauna ecosystems
Simultaneously with the soil restoration, the Pasvik Reserve's specialists will observe the wildlife to see how birds, animals and mammals develop and how they use transformed or altered landscapes, including technogenic-transformed locations in the area of industrial companies, or meadows on abandoned agricultural land or fields.
"This project, dubbed Transformed Landscapes of the Arctic, is supervised by the Presidential Foundation for Environmental and Conservation Projects. Its term is planned to 2028, and it will cover the entire Murmansk Region. In changed ecosystems, other species of birds and animals begin to inhabit and feed in the altered landscapes. How does this happen? How the behavior of animals is changing, and how such places are developing? Such as areas where used to be forest roads when timber was cut there, and now that these roads are not that used, or areas of logging, or fires. Such changes are certainly very important. In the north, apparently they happen when humans change economic activities - and natural complexes are changing accordingly," she continued.
Based on the research results, scientists will prepare landscape management recommendations for government authorities, industrial enterprises and environmental organizations to preserve biodiversity in the Russian Federation's Arctic.
About the nature reserve
The Pasvik Nature Reserve of almost 15,000 hectares is located in the Murmansk Region in the border area of Russia, Norway and Finland. The reserve's territory is a 44 km narrow strip long that runs along the state border of Russia and Norway, and the western border runs exactly along the Russian Federation's state border.